From: Piya Tan
Message: 12029
Date: 2008-01-27
On Jan 26, 2008 9:11 PM, Jon Fernquest <bayinnaung@...> wrote:
> > For the benefits of all, would you kindly give us
> > a self-introduction?
>
> Dear Yong Peng;
>
> I noticed that you are an electrical engineer. I studied this subject as a
>
> graduate student at Stanford University in the US and worked as a
> research assistant and computer programmer in the EE department.
> Later I worked for seven years as a computer consultant around the US
> and also at an AI firm in Palo Alto, so that's how I know about AI stuff
> like CYC.
>
> (I have a feeling that some of the logic of the Abhidharma Pitaka,
> namely the Yamaka, might have some things that resemble
> knowledgebase logic in AI, that was used to condensing ideas in list
> form in the Tipitaka.)
>
> Recently, I've taught at universities in South Korea and Thailand and
> now work at a newspaper, my boss and I run the only blog at the
> Bangkok Post, which is fun because you get to write a lot and you get to
> work with software (Movable Type plus traffic monitoring software). I
> taught myself Burmese and have translated U Kala's Maha-yaza-win-gyi
> chronicle. I've published several papers on military history at SOAS in
> London (warfare is not very Buddhist I guess, but that is what Burmese
> history books are largely about, anyway I'm anti-war, war is just
> another form of human samsara, perhaps the most horrible form)
>
> Recently I've taken to investigating in greater depth the intellectual
> history of chronicles and chronicle writing and this leads inevitably back
>
> to Pali literature in the 14th-15th century in Burma, particularly
> interested in the interface of Buddhism and politics, which is law and
> warfare for pre-modern history. During my vacation last month I
> discovered Steven Collins "Nirvana and other Buddhist Felicities" chapter
> six of which completely transformed the way I think about Burmese
> historical chronicles.
>
> I saw your page of software projects. There are things in Chinese
> language pedagogy that might be borrowed for Pali, like a well-defined
> vocabulary list based on word frequency combined with online
> flashcards and diagnostic testing that tells roughly how many words
> you've mastered, or grammatical points you have to work on. The
> Chinese text readers that gloss Chinese characters when you sweep the
> cursor over them would be more difficult for Pali because you have to
> parse the words down the component morphological pieces first, but
> someone must have done the first steps.
>
> One of my friend's at work is a former monk and he amazes me with
> the conceptual depth of his vocabulary that he got from his Pali studies,
> so I have a little bit of an eccentric idea perhaps, that Pali might be
> useful for teaching English., so much of the Thai and Burmese
> languages seem to come from it.
>
> Looking forward to sharing Pali learning experiences with you.
>
> Sincerely,
> Jon Fernquest
>
> --- In Pali@yahoogroups.com <Pali%40yahoogroups.com>, "Ong Yong Peng" <
> pali.smith@...> wrote:
> >
> > Dear Jon,
> >
> > I am truly impressed by the technical contents of the messages you
> > wrote to the group. For the benefits of all, would you kindly give us
> > a self-introduction? Thank you.
> >
> > metta,
> > Yong Peng.
> >
> >
> > --- In Pali@yahoogroups.com <Pali%40yahoogroups.com>, Jon Fernquest
> wrote:
> >
> > Have any Pali scholars ever heard of a Pali list of different kinds of
> > languages or words. Here is a list from a preface of a Burmese
> > historical work.
> >
>
>
>
--
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